Are there any depressive games...

are there any depressive games? I don't mean like MGS3/Silent Hill 2 with a sad moment or twist in them but like atmospheric end of the world depressing. Really only this and The Last Of Us come to mind which pull it off right. Fallout 1/2 pull the end of the world survival aspect off right but they're not really depressive/hopeless especially after you get the power armor.

Dragon Age Origins

oh really? I've always written it of as yet another action rpg in the vein of oblivion

Final Fantasy XIII-2.

Pathologic

>TLOU
that shit's only "depressing" by how predictable, laughable and shit the whole game is.

LISA
Bastion sort of
Shadow of the Colossus

LIMBO

oh yeah right LISA and Sotc do that good too, couldn't really get into Bastion though

Pathologic has been on my backlog long enough anyway and I don't know the story in TLOU was pretty by the numbers but the atmosphere and dialogue was pretty well made. Also the stealth/survival gameplay was not restrained by recent trends which I appreciated, especially on higher difficulties.

What about TLOU was predictable? I doubt anybody could see that ending from far away.

OFF kinda counts.

The whole story, the general tropes, and how certain scenes would play. The thing was such a huge I AM HERO ripoff, that it was not even funny.

>I doubt anybody could see that ending from far away.
You haven't seen enough movies then.

>Also the stealth/survival gameplay was not restrained by recent trends which I appreciated, especially on higher difficulties.
Our standards seem to differ quite a bit, because the gameplay and its overall very typical, super handholding and set-piece focused gameplay was one of the things that made the game a total slog for me. No, it was not "hard", just fucking boring and annoying to "play".

It's not that depressive if you're paying attention to what you're doing and not failing your everyday objections - keeping important people alive.

Stop being that gamer, please. The biggest problem with TLOU isn't that game itself which is alright, but gamejournous and plebs who really believe that it's Citizen Kane of gaming.

It's a decent game, not excellent or even great but decent enough.

It's like watching a Nolan's movie and excepting something the level of Tarkovsky.

we're talking about depressing atmosphere and world here, not the gameplay. The world of Pathologic is bleak and dying, and you are also always in constant, potential danger. Especially first time around.

this game isnt depressing as long as i can do SICK DRIFTS

Digital Devil Saga. 2 in particular.

what are your recommendations for survival or stealth then? Aside from Stalker this is from what I've played the best we got last gen. The game also had excellend level design, detailed locations and an pacing unmatched by any other linear game I've played.

I know that problem, that's why I don't defend the story which those people seem to focus on. But the gameplay was well done especially for AAA and me expecting a movie. Also no one watches Nolan and expects Tarkovsky because no one who watches Nolan knows Tarkovsky

But one should start with the first, right?

Yeah, it's a direct sequel.

might check out, was thinking of going with Persona 2 since I haven't played that yet which also seems rather dark, which one would you rather recommend?

>implying anyone who plays the last of us knows what I am a hero is

I've been trying pretty hard to get into Pathologic. But the dialogue is so dense, and I keep learning info out of order while being told I'm doing everything on a strict time limit.

I'm bad at restricting exploration for a constant time limit.

Watch a LP. Gameplay-wise it's a really awful game. Both original, HD and remake, judging by the demo.

And translation is still pretty meh. Trust me, I'm slav

SOMA.

The character arcs and lore behind everything revolves around dealing with a kind of existential crisis over the state of the world and questioning what makes you human.

OP wanted games not walking simulators.

>what are your recommendations for survival or stealth then?
I prefer to keep the two separated. Only stealth-survival-horror mix I've actually enjoyed were the Penumbra-games.
STALKER trilogy is elder-god tier, and I've put thousands of hours to all three of them by now. Just about every other wanna-be has been mediocre at best so far. For survival-HORROR, there's still no beating the early 00s classics, like Silent Hill 1-4 and REmake.

For stealth, I still go back to the MGS series. Dishonored was a-OK, but too easy and handholding at times, unless you disciplined yourself for non-lethal play.


>this is from what I've played the best we got last gen.
Either you don't play too many games, or you like literal movies as games. Yeah, must sound hilarious coming from someone just praising MGS series, but there's a clear design difference between these two games' "cinematography".

I actually totally avoided TLOU up until last summer, because it looked typical and predictable, overhyped bullshit like so many nu-Naughtydog's and other AAA devs' games nowadays, and people always merely praised its "touching story". Well, got the game for dirt cheap from a fleamarket last July, played through the intro(s), and then turned it off in literal confusion and disgust. THIS shit counts as "good writing & acting" this day and age? This shit counts as "good" gameplay? Hell, even the graphics were mediocre as hell outside those slooow as fuck walking sim sections, with many of the fancy effects totally disappearing after you get more control! And jesus fuck, enough with these linear, scripted setpiece "gameplay" parts with insta-kill "YOU FAILED! RETRY IT FROM START" penalties; totally counter-intuitive, enraging and pointless bullshit.


The game's whole appeal is its non-linear design and learning bits and pieces you gather.

what if I didn't like any of their previous games?

Talos Principle handled the same topics, much better.

Frictional literally lost their touch after Amnesia, or rather already after Penumbra: Black Plague if you ask me.

The first one is full blown rpg

dork souls

I felt that Persona 2 isn't that great for the type of pervasive, atmospheric sadness that you're looking for. There's some sad stuff, sure, but some of what was supposed to be serious felt outright silly in its absurdity and you still have a bunch of schoolkids being schoolkids. It also wasn't all that much fun to play, so the story's all it really has.

DDS 2 left me emotionally drained for days.

thanks for posting that image, had pathologic on the back burner for ages and might actually try playing through it tonight

DDS1/2 are far better games than Persona 2. They're better in terms of mechanics, general gameplay, dungeon design, story, writing, and pretty much every other conceivable area.

That's not to say that Persona 2 is a bad game, but the DDS games are basically the best SMT games, so you should definitely check them out.

A fuckton of japanese ps2 games. Just download some and play ot.

Do you mean melancholy, op?

Pariah, lol. DAT FUCKING RETARDED ENDING!
Second this.

And you can try some sci-fi adventure game from 90-s.

Dark Seed and Harvester in kinda fucked up way. First half of Mission Critical is great (second half is omg time travel space magic). Zero Critical is also a nice choice.

I especially recommend trying Azrael's Tears - one of the best games no one has played.
>wall of text
Come on, The Talos Principle is probably my 2014 GOTY, but it has completely different narrative and atmosphere.

Depression Quest :^)

>The Talos Principle is probably my 2014 GOTY, but it has completely different narrative and atmosphere.
Well duh, but it does not change the fact that these two games have almost the same themes, hell even same terms are being spread around constantly, and that I considered Talos to do it all better and in more interesting manner at that.

I was not really trying to have an argument, just asking for recommendations but all the games you've mentioned are either Stalker (which I stated, is better than TLOU) or came out before the PS3 gen so TLOU still is the best last gen (or are you implying MGS4 has better gameplay?).

Also the intro is shit, summer is fine but the game gets going in autumn. The scripted setpieces were the only downfall of the game, hopefully they fix that in the sequel.

>Either you don't play too many games, or you like literal movies as games.
it does sound hilarious coming from someone just praising MGS. I guess I understand what you mean but some Thief namedropping would have come a long way to make your argument

I found SOMA more memorable than Amnesia honestly. It had more of a tonal arc to things storywise and explored the characters' emotions more.

Granted, Amnesia was probably the scarier of the two. SOMA's monsters and chase sequences aren't really the selling point.

huh, downloading DDS1 now (hopefully they work on PCSX2). Thx

It's an amalgamation of various post-apocalyptic movies/books like the Road, Children of Men, I Am Legend, etc. without an ounce of originality. The gameplay was decent but being a console shooter bogs it down enough without all the shitty psuedo-cutscene padding they threw in just so they could cut down their cutscene length to avoid the game being called a movie. I'm astounded that someone actually mentioned it in the same breath as Nier since Nier does everything TLOU did a thousand times better and because TLOU's "unexpected" ending is literally the same shit as Nier's, except Joel is more of an unlikable asshole than Nier.

>that I considered Talos to do it all better and in more interesting manner at that
Narrative has nothing to do with gameplay until like last quarter of the game.

The Talos Principle is a more interesting and challenging game in terms of gameplay, but in terms of narrative and atmosphere it's nowhere near SOMA. It's chill as fuck, really. It's like reading some philosophy work. It's not bleak and terrifying at all.

>(or are you implying MGS4 has better gameplay?).
You didn't even ask that, but now that you did: Fuck yes it does. It actually controls smooth as butter, and no matter that it's mostly linear-ish game as well, it actually gives you plenty of options how to proceed, including but not limited to alternative routes - some which you easily can miss if you just take the "main road" down the path.

>It's not bleak and terrifying at all.
Well aware of that, but again - I wasn't talking about depressing atmosphere at all.

Sekien no Inganock is a good one, but it has a semi-happy ending so it might not be what you're looking for.

The final stretch of Persona 3 kind of did this for me.

The story still starts with the standard anime high school tropes and all that, but after a while the quirky NPCs around town start to be traded out with doomsayers, and fliers heralding the end of humanity as the situation gets worse and worse.

>depressive
No it's just boring, the MCs design already screams forcefully emo

I guess chapter 1 and 2 were good but overall I'd much rather play TLOU from beginning to end again than MGS4. TLOU also has items and exploration and while the game was linear overall every enemy encounter had multiple paths to take and DYNAMIC events to unfold. Also the only stealth game where shooting your way out doesn't seem like cheating since ammo is so limited that every shot has to hit and you die in 2 hits. That is, if you don't play on normal.

I bet you never played tlou, pcuck

Too bad the AI are dumbfuck retarded and even on Survivor they can easily be cheesed.

Aren't all Drakengard games like this? I'm actually starting DoD3 tonight. I'm hoping to feel at least a little bit of dread.

Well yeah, the protagonist had all the personality of a beige dish rag, but I still thought the story had its atmospheric moments.

coming from someone who only played the handholding intro where every AI just waits for you to knock them out

>emo

2006 was ten years ago, mate. That's not an insult /critique anymore.

But that's the entire game if you stealth it. If you don't you juust channel them all through a doorway so they'll blindly charge through.

>watch a LP
Any in particular?

so you played it past the intro?

Heh, I actually just finished the game yesterday and cam ehere to post it. What a ride. The whole OST changes up at that point too as the end of days becomes inevitable.

Depression Quest

Root Letter, play root letter.

It's the most depressing game ever. It even includes a high school reunion thats how depressing it is.

Pathologic. It'll gut you, most likely you'll be too exhausted to complete it.

Lightning Returns, kinda. Loved the music in it, a lot of it was real melancholy.

>I guess chapter 1 and 2 were good but overall I'd much rather play TLOU from beginning to end again than MGS4
Yeah, no. I literally don't want to ever even hear about TLOU again, while MGS4 remains as one of the best games in the series. I have no idea what people see as such a huge negative thing in the latter chapters of MGS4.

It's just weird that modern shills try to use that as an "argument" for their shitty games, thinking that EVERYONE would love and fap to their crap releases unanimous.

if anything, it just proves how deep they take their publishers' dick, and can't even come up with any defensive arguments against the criticism.

Even though a lot of the plot points felt kind of wacky and out of place I can agree with this. Persona 3 had great atmosphere in general.

I'm not entirely sure it's exactly what you're talking about, OP, but I've been playing through SMT Nocturne and it has a pretty bleak world/story, too. Plus it's probably the most fun I've ever had with a turn-based RPG. The rng can be pretty brutal at times, though.

beast eye megidolaon beast eye megidolaon beast eye beast eye megidolaon beast eye megidolaon beast eye beast eye megidolaon beast eye megidolaon beast eye beast eye megidolaon beast eye megidolaon beast eye...

tale of Alltynex

They work fantastic in PCSX2 if your computer can handle it

>while MGS4 remains as one of the best games in the series. I have no idea what people see as such a huge negative thing in the latter chapters of MGS4.
Chapter 3's 'stealth' is a joke, Chapter 4 is mostly fighting of those little robots and Chapter 5 is one room, stealth wise. I didn't feel any openness in those Chapters except for Chapter 5 but even then I felt more like finding a specific way the designers have set out for me rather than creating my own scenarios. Chapter 1 and 2 were fantastic though except for the action sequences. And it's the fourth best so I don't know if that makes it the best in the series, depends on how much one has played.

Dark Souls worlds are fucking depressing. And I'm not just talking atmosphere and lack of towns/people and horrid enemies. I mean the stories are depressing as fuck too. But they don't feed you the stories, you gotta pick up on them.

Uh, I loved TLOU but it was predictable as fuck. It literally did everything you expect it to do, but it did it well.

The first Dark Souls probably had my favorite balance between lore, and people telling you nothing.

Emphasizing how you're just some nobody wandering around the ruins of a dead world, because all the real heroes have either faded away or gone mad.